What do I mean by Downtime? I mean the time between adventures where characters are in no rush to complete a goal and can spend some time relaxing or achieving something unrelated to your main plot. Downtime is useful to give your players variety and to give them more chances to roleplay.
Downtime for me is fun and feels like an adventure in itself, that is why I run Downtime and role-play all the NPC’s the players could encounter in their downtime, unless the players want to skip forward in time, I will let the downtime play out, but still offer plot hooks or opportunities for encounters throughout, just in case the players fancy an adventure. If they are in the mood to start an adventure then they can “bite” on to my plot hooks.
How to Make Your Players Downtime Better
During downtime you will want your players to feel like their adventures are having an impact on the world. For example, you could have an NPC thank the players for ridding the town of their bandit problems. As well as this if you should also show your players any negative consequences of their actions, this will make your players think carefully about their future decisions as they know that whatever they decide it will affect the world around them.
It also is good to remind the players of cool stuff that happened in their previous
adventures. For example You could have an NPC mention a previous adventure that he had accompanied the Players on and this will remind the players of that adventure and hopefully the fun that they had whilst playing through it. As well as this by making the players reminisce about the good times it will also motivate your players to want to go on the future adventures you have planned for them, so they can have more of the enjoyment they experiences in the previous adventures.
During the Downtime you could describe events that have happened in the town
to the PC’s to indicate that this is a changing/real world. You could also
provide plot hooks to make your players interested in the next adventure. For
example an NPC mentions how there have been mysterious disappearances on the
east side of town or mentions how there have been a lot of soldiers marching
through the town and heading west. Hopefully your players will be interested
in one of these plot hooks and will bite, if they aren’t interested in your
plot hooks, let them have more downtime, although keep finding ways to include
plot hooks for potential adventures.
Let them do what they want to do, if your players want to spend 2 hours gambling or setting up a business in town, let them and describe their escapades to provide them with entertainment. In the end you should be trying to create a fun experience for your players and if your players are ignoring your plot hooks and always putting off starting the next adventure, let them, carry on letting them do what they want to do. In fact you could adapt your adventures to revolve around the things your players have decided to accomplish, for example maybe they need to acquire staff members or materials for their business that they will only be able to find on an adventure.
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